Star Wars - [Young Jedi Knights 1] - Heirs Of The Force

by Kevin J. Anderson

  Seating herself on a low stool, Tionne began to strum. "I will tell you about a Jedi Master who lived long ago," she said. "This is the ballad of Master Vodo-Siosk Baas."

  As she began to sing, Jacen agreed with his uncle; Tionne was indeed worth listening to. Her song rang clear and true. Its pure tones carried easily to the farthest corners of the great hall and transported them all to a time they had never witnessed. The music flowed around them, sweeping them along on currents of excitement and courage and triumph and sacrifice.

  She sang of dire events that had taken place four thousand years earlier-how the strange, alien Jedi Master had been de stroyed by Exar Kun, one of his. own students who had turned to the dark side. Master Vodo had begged the other Jedi Masters not to do battle with Exar Kun, and had tried to reason with him alone-though his gentle hopes had ended in tragedy.

  In the silence that followed her song, a flood of insight washed through Jacen as he realized that this Jedi was worth listening to for more than just her voice.

  Tionne stood, to a collective sigh from everyone present. Jacen hadn't even realized he'd been holding his breath.

  "I trust my first lesson to you hasn't been too painful," she said with a merry twinkle in her pearly eyes. "Tomorrow I will give another lesson, after morning meal."

  With that, the evening meeting ended. Some listeners remained seated, transfixed, as if trying to absorb the last trickles of music lingering in the room. Others left singly or in whispering groups, while still others stayed behind to talk with Tionne.

  Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca found themselves free at last to talk. They huddled together and discussed Lowie's find. Em Teedee--carefully modulating his voice to an appropriate, secretive level--provided translations.

  They speculated by turns about the strange glinting object that Lowbacca had seen out in the jungle. They came to only one conclu sion: at the earliest possible opportunity, they would go out together and investigate.

  Tionne's morning ballad fell in a fine musical mist, drenching its listeners with wonder and ancient lore. Jacen sat in the second row with his brandy-colored eyes closed, concentrating on her words, trying to absorb everything the music had to teach him. It was just as well that his eyes were shut, since his view was completely blocked by the colorful bulk of Raynar wearing his finest robes.

  As the last notes drained away, Jacen opened his eyes to find his sister staring at him in silent amusement. Neither Lowbacca nor Tenel Ka, who sat beside him, gave any indication that they had noticed Jacen's apparent absorption in the music. Then Tionne spoke, drawing Jacen's attention back to the silver-haired Jedi on the raised platform.

  "A Jedi's greatest power comes not from size or from physical strength," she said. "It comes from understanding the Force--from trusting in the Force. As part of your Jedi training you will learn to build your confidence and belief through practice. Without that practice we may not succeed when it is most important. This is true of many skills in life. Listen to a story.

  "Once, a young girl lived by a lake. Simply by watching others, she learned much about how to swim. One day when her family was busy, the girl jumped into the deep water. Although she moved her arms and legs as she had seen other swimmers do, she could not keep her head above the water.

  "Fortunately a fisherwoman jumped in and rescued her. The woman, a practiced swimmer, had not needed to think about how to swim, but the little girl--who had only learned by watching--did not have the skill even to stay afloat. After they were safely out of the water, the fisherwoman took the girl's hand and said, 'Come to the shallows, child, and I will teach you to swim.' "

  Tionne paused as if lost in thought, her pearly eyes glittering. "So it is with the Force. Unless we practice what we learn, and unless we are tested, we never know we can trust in the Force if the need arises. That is why this Jedi academy is also called a praxeum. It is a place where we not only learn, but we put the learning to use. As with swimming, the more we practice, the more confidence we have. Eventually, our skill becomes second nature.

  "The next several days I would like the beginning and intermediate students to practice one of the most basic skills: using the Force to lift. For today, practice lifting only something small--no bigger than a leaf."

  Raynar interrupted in a blustery voice, "How can you expect us to strengthen our skills if you take us back to a child's level?"

  Jacen rolled his eyes at Raynar's rudeness, but he had to admit that he had been wondering the same thing.

  Tionne smiled down at Raynar without annoyance. "A good question. Let me give you an example. If you wanted to strengthen your arms, you might lift many stones one time, or you might lift one stone many times. It is the same with your Jedi skills. For today, practice just as I have asked you. It is not the only way to strengthen your skills, but it is one way. There are always alternatives. I promise you will learn more than just how to lift a leaf."

  Tionne dismissed the students. As they left the grand audience chamber and started down the worn stone stairs, Jaina pulled the other three young Jedi to a halt, her eyes dancing. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.

  Jacen, who did not know what she was thinking, nonetheless sensed her excitement and her eagerness to investigate Lowie's mysterious discovery.

  Jaina shrugged. "What better place to practice lifting leaves than out in a jungle?"

  Chapter 8

  "You sure this seat is safe?" Jacen asked as he squeezed himself into the cargo well behind the T-23's passenger seat.

  "Of course it is," his sister replied automatically as she climbed into the front. "You like crawling into cramped spaces anyway."

  "Only to catch bugs," he grumbled. "There's no cushioning back here."

  The cargo well was much too small to accommodate Tenel Ka, who was taller and more solidly built than either of the twins. Jacen would have to settle for the back or be left behind; his sister would take her turn there on the return trip. He squirmed and settled in as the T-23's engines started with a roaring purr.

  Lowie called a command over the sound of the warming repulsorlifts. Em Teedee said, "Master Lowbacca requests that you please be certain that your restraints are secure. He is interested in your utmost safety. We shall be departing momentarily."

  Lowbacca's voice barked out again, and the droid amended his translation. "Actually, Master Lowbacca might have said something closer to, 'Hold on, everyone. Here we go!'"

  "Oh, blaster bolts. No crash straps either," Jacen observed as Jaina and Tenel Ka buckled themselves in up front.

  The rebuilt T-23 lifted off with a small jerk. The wind howled past the rattling window plates as they picked up height and speed. Jacen felt the thrill of being airborne as the ion afterburners spluttered behind them. Even cramped in the back, he was glad he hadn't stayed behind.

  Jacen looked out through the scratched port as Lowbacca let the skyhopper skim just above the treetops, arrowing away from the Jedi academy into unexplored territory. Soon there were nothing but trees as far as Jacen could see through the scratched port, as lush and green as the sky above him was blue.

  Though he enjoyed the lovely foliage below him, Jacen's legs began to cramp. By the time the T-23 dove down and came to rest in a small clearing, he could feel the engine vibrations all the way to his teeth.

  Up front, Jaina and Tenel Ka unbuckled their restraints and scrambled nimbly out of the T-23. Jacen dragged himself from the cargo well, stretching his stiff legs as he stepped out into the tangled underbrush. He rubbed the seat of his jumpsuit with both hands to get the circulation going again. "I think a leaf is about all I could lift right now!"

  Lowie rushed to the edge of the clearing, beckoning the others. "Master Lowbacca says the tree holding the artifact is over here," Em Teedee called. "It has several broken branches, so he was able to locate it easily from the air."

  Jaina looked in the direction that Lowbacca was pointing. "Well, what are we waiting for?" she said. Tenel Ka marched
over to the young Wookiee, as if ready to carve a path through the jungle. Jacen took a long and wistful look at all the strange new plants he saw around him, but followed the others into the deep green shadows.

  Lowbacca gestured up into the distant branches of an enormous Massassi tree. The trunk seemed as big around as one of the skyscrapers on city-covered Coruscant, and even the lowest branches were well out of Jacen's reach. But Lowie wanted them to climb up after him!

  "Oh," said Jaina, a crestfallen look on her face, "I wouldn't get very far climbing that."

  Lowbacca assured them, via Em Teedee, that the climb would be easy for a Wookiee. He offered to go up alone for the first investigation and report his findings so they could decide the next step.

  "We can explore down here," Jacen suggested. "We might find some other pieces of... of whatever it is." Or maybe some interesting animals or fungus or insects, he thought hopefully.

  Jaina and Tenel Ka readily agreed. Low-bacca swiped a hairy hand along the thick black streak that ran through the fur above his left eyebrow. He swarmed up the trunk, swung into the lower branches, and soon disappeared from sight.

  Jacen's stomach rumbled with hunger, and he hoped that Lowbacca would hurry. The three young Jedi trainees poked around in the underbrush, spiraling out from the T-23 in a wandering search pattern. Taking turns, they practiced their leaf-lifting assignment, fluttering leaves in the shrubbery, lifting dry forest debris from the damp and mossy ground.

  Before long, Lowbacca came crashing back down through the thick branches. He dropped to the ground near them and let out a loud Wookiee cry.

  Jaina ran toward him, eager and interested. "Did you find it, Lowie?"

  Lowbacca nodded vigorously.

  "What was it?" Jaina asked. "Can you describe it?"

  "Master Lowbacca believes it to be some sort of solar panel," Em Teedee translated as the Wookiee replied. Then the droid launched into a complete description.

  Jaina felt her skin prickle with goose bumps. "Hmmmm," she said. "If I'm right, there should be a lot more to that artifact than what Lowie saw. Let's keep looking."

  Tenel Ka dug into a small supply pouch she carried with her and withdrew a pack of carbo-protein biscuits. "Here. Nourishment as we search."

  Jacen chomped hungrily on his biscuit. "Just what are we looking for, Jaina?" he asked, speaking around a mouthful of crumbs.

  "Scrap metal, machinery, another solar panel." Jaina shaded her eyes, scanning deeper into the thick jungles around them. "Well keep widening the circle of our search until we find something. What we're looking for shouldn't be too far away."

  Jacen retrieved a flask of water from the T-23, took a gulp, and handed it to his sister. Jaina took a few mouthfuls of water and passed the flask on to Lowbacca. Then she set off at a trot for the base of the big tree. Jaina didn't look back to see if the others were following, and bit her lip, feeling a brief pang of guilt.

  At times like this Jaina always seemed to assume leadership, just like her mother. But how could she help it? Her parents had raised all three of their children to assess a situation, weigh the alternatives, and make decisions.

  "Let's spread out," she said.

  "Great!" Jacen said, walking around the massive trunk toward a clump of dense undergrowth.

  Jaina smiled, knowing full well that her brother's excitement came not from a desire to find the mysterious artifact, but from the opportunity to explore the jungle and examine its creatures more closely.

  She was about to head into the underbrush herself when Lowbacca stopped her with a questioning growl. Em Teedee translated. "Master Lowbacca says--and I personally am inclined to agree with him--that the jungle floor is not a safe place to split up. Even to speed up a search."

  As impatient as she was to continue looking, Jaina stopped to consider. Tenel Ka caught her eye, placed her hands on her hips, and nodded. "This is a fact."

  Jaina gnawed at her lower lip again, thinking, and came to a decision. "All right. We spread out a little but, but only as far as our line of sight. Good enough?"

  The others' murmurs of agreement were interrupted by a loud squawking as a flock of reptile birds took flight from the bushes near where Jacen had been exploring. Jacen emerged from the bushes on his hands and knees, looking startled, but not displeased.

  "No big discoveries," he reported, "but I did find this." He held out his palm. In it was a plump, furry gray creature, quivering in a small nest of glossy fibers.

  Another animal. Jaina sighed with resignation. She might have guessed.

  "Ah. A-hah," Tenel Ka said. Lowbacca bent forward to run a shaggy finger along the tiny creature's back.

  "Look, Jaina," Jacen said, turning the fluffy nest in his hand. He pointed to a dull, flat loop of metal that was firmly attached to the mass of fibers.

  "A ... buckle?" Jaina said, finally comprehending.

  Her brother nodded. "Like the kind in crash webbing."

  "Good work," Tenel Ka said with solemn approval.

  "Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina asked. "Let's keep going."

  By midafternoon, though, Jaina began to get discouraged. Jacen, on the other hand, was intrigued by every crawling creature or insect they encountered.

  "Do please try to be a bit more cautious!" Jaina could hear Em Teedee saying. "That's the third dent today. And I've lost count of how many scratches I've received while you've been exploring. Now if you would only be more attentive to--"

  Em Teedee's admonishments were drowned out as Lowie gave a sharp bark of surprise behind a tangle of vines and branches. "Oh! Oh, my. Mistress Jaina, Master Jacen, Mistress Tenel Ka!" Em Teedee's voice was loud enough to startle not only Jaina but a number of flying and climbing creatures. "Do come quickly. Master Lowbacca has made a discovery."

  Needing no further encouragement, all of them rushed to see what Lowbacca had found. Jaina felt her heart pounding in her chest, knowing and dreading what they would find.

  They worked quickly, scratching and cutting their hands as they pulled away the thick plant growth from the heap of metallic wreckage. Jaina gasped as they finally exposed it--a rounded, tarnished cockpit large enough only for a single pilot, one squarish black solar panel crisscrossed with support braces. The other panel was missing, stuck up in the tree where Lowie had found it. But still the ship was unmistakable.

  A crashed Imperial TIE fighter.

  Chapter 9

  "But why would such a craft be here in the jungles of Yavin 4?" Tenel Ka asked, narrowing her eyes in concern as they worked to remove the debris from the ruined craft. "Is it an Imperial spy ship?"

  Jaina shook her head. "Can't be. TIE fighters were short-range ships used by the Empire. They weren't equipped with hyperdrive, so there aren't many ways it could have gotten here."

  Jacen cleared his throat. "Well, I can think of one way," he said, "but that would make this ship--let's see..."

  "Over twenty years old..." Jaina breathed, finishing his sentence for him.

  Lowbacca made a low, questioning noise, and Tenel Ka continued to look perplexed.

  Jaina explained. "When the Empire built the first Death Star, it was the most powerful weapon ever made. They tested it by destroying Alderaan, our mother's homeworld. Then they brought it here to Yavin 4, to destroy the Rebel base."

  As she spoke, Jaina pulled the last bit of brush away from the top canopy of the TIE fighter and looked inside. There were no bones. She slid into the musty cockpit.

  "A lot of Rebel pilots died in one-on-one combat with the TIE fighters that protected the Death Star, and a lot of Imperial fighters were shot down too," Jacen said, picking up the story.

  Jaina wrinkled her nose at the mildewy smell, the mold-clogged controls. She ran her fingers over the navigation panels in the cockpit, closing her eyes and wondering what it must have been like twenty-some years ago to be a fighter pilot in the Battle of Yavin 4. She envisioned an enemy fighter swooping toward her in a strafing run, her engine hit, her tiny ship car
eening out of control. ...

  Jacen's voice broke into her thoughts. "But then in the end, our dad flew cover for Uncle Luke's X-wing fighter while he took his final run. Uncle Luke made the shot that blew up the Death Star."

  Tenel Ka nodded gravely, her braided red-gold hair like a wreath around her head. "And why is it called a TIE fighter?" she asked.

  Jaina answered, speaking up from the cockpit, "Because it has twin ion engines. T-I-E, see?"

  Ducking her head, she wormed her way to the engine access panels at the rear of the cockpit and pried open the tarnished metal plate. A squeaking rodent, disturbed from its hidden nest, scampered away, vanishing through a small hole in the hull.

  Jaina tinkered with the engines, checking integrity, noting the rotted hoses and fuel lines. But overall, the primary motivators seemed intact, though she would have to run numerous diagnostics. She had plenty of spare parts in her room.

  She stood up slowly in the cockpit and poked her head out again, then ran her callused hands along the side of the crashed TIE fighter. "You know, I think we could do it," Jaina said.

  All eyes turned toward her, questioning.

  "I think we could fix the TIE fighter."

  Her brother stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, then clapped a palm to his forehead. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

  As the whine of the T-23 skyhopper faded into the jungle distance, the frightened forest creatures settled back into their routines. They scuttled through the underbrush, chasing each other across the branches, predator and prey. The leaves stirred and flying creatures sent their cries from treetop to treetop, forgetting the intruders entirely.

  Far below on the forest floor, the branches of a dense thicket parted. A worn and tattered black glove pushed a thorny twig aside.